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Synchronous Rhythmic Flashing of Fireflies. II.
Abstract
Synchronized flashing by males of some firefly species involves a capacity for visually coordinated, rhythmically coincident, inter-individual behavior that is apparently unique in the animal kingdom except for a few other arthropods and for man. This paper reviews (1) diverse communicative interactions that have evolved from elementary photic signals, (2) physiological mechanisms of synchronism, and (3) theories about its biological meaning. Work of the past 20 years shows that flash synchrony is widespread geographically and taxonomically, appears in an astonishing range of spectacular display types, utilizes several neural flash-control mechanisms and is pervasively but enigmatically involved in courtship. No proposed function for synchrony has been fully established but theory and physiology concur in indicating that synchrony aids male orientation toward the female, female recognition of male flashing, or both. Increased mate choice for the female is one likely ultimate benefit.
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Cited by
Goebel, R., Sanfelice, R. G., & Teel, A. R. (2009) · IEEE Control Systems · doi:10.1109/mcs.2008.931718 · Cited by 1,656
Time Delay in the Kuramoto Model of Coupled Oscillators
Yeung, M. K. S., & Strogatz, S. H. (1999) · Physical Review Letters · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.82.648 · Cited by 601
The essential role of ritual in the transmission and reinforcement of social norms.
Rossano, M. J. (2012) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0027038 · Cited by 315
Studying Synchronization to a Musical Beat in Nonhuman Animals
Patel, A. D., Iversen, J. R., Bregman, M. R., & Schulz, I. (2009) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04581.x · Cited by 111
Metadata
- Authors
- Buck, J.
- Venue
- The Quarterly Review of Biology
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1988-09
- Volume
- 63
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 265-289
- ISSN
- 0033-5770 (ISSN-L)
- 1539-7718
- OpenAlex
- W2036655194
- Cited by
- 726
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 4.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
